Vacuum State: A Course in Miracles

This posting is based on what I have learned from the "A Course in Miracles" seminar on the 16th and 17th of February 2008 in Singapore by Dr Aaron Lim. This is fourth of a six weekend lecture series occurring once every two months. The notes is written as in the first-person for easy reading, but it is not an ad-verbatim recording of what Dr Lim speaks during the seminar.
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Warning: This posting contains opinions that may be considered unacceptable by some people. If you are easily offended by unconventional views about religion and spiritualism, then DO NOT READ FURTHER THAN HERE. If you do, then do it at your own risk! If you do not agree with the views expressed below, it does not mean that you have not 'arrived', rather it just mean that you 'do not agree'. Meanwhile, try to be open. There are lots to discover about ourselves when we are open. Do feel free to leave comments. BELIEVING IS NOT NECESSARY!
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[To keep the text lean here, I will not include subjects that were covered in the previous ACIM lectures. If you want to read about those subjects, you may refer to the notes in the previous posts. You can use the 'Search' facility in this blog.]

[Day 1]

It is in the quiet of our life that 'things' begin to happen. For instance, during Winter the plant already began to grow, but you cannot see it until the results of Spring. For us, inner work must start before results show, and we can start it anytime.

For those of you who are new in ACIM, you may find some of that it reads like a Christian book, as it has Christian-like words. You may be uncomfortable with some of the words for some reason. It may be because you may have suffered in your previous embodiment. It could well be that you have been in the opposite side of the Christian Crusade. You may have remembered symbols that are unattractive to you now. For instance, when my daughter sees Jesus Christ on the Cross with head down and blood, she will turn pale and could almost faint.

If you have a problem with some symbols, this is time to overcome them now. If you are uncomfortable with the word 'God', the you may like to substitute it with 'Nature' or any other equivalent you are comfortable with. Everywere, there is nothing that Nature is not.

Also, if you are from a religion that perceives God to be outside of yourself, then you may be uncomfortable or guilty if you learn in ACIM that You are God. Me? God? How can it be?

We all exist in ideas.

"I am a man", is an idea.

"I am a business man", is an idea.

"I am a dharma teacher", is an idea.

But whatever you are "I am" remains the same.

So, by changing your idea, you change you.

For instance, I can change, "I am a Chinese man" to "I am a universal consciousness", and I change myself instantly. Now I celebrate all festivals and cultures including the Chinese culture.
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This morning on the way to this place, I passed by the nearby Kuan Yin Temple. I saw some devotees praying inside the temple, some outside, some holding incense, some not holding incense, some facing towards the temple, some facing outwards from the temple...etc. They may pray in different ways, but they are all asking for blessings. I find it sad, that these devotees do not know that blessings come from ourselves. "Asking" may help to a small extent, but only in a very limited way and it would be temporary. You can't rely on a power 'outside' you!

For instance, I am afraid of heights. When there is a staircase without a wall or railing, I dare not climb up. I will feel as if I am still but the surrounding is moving. Once, I came to a staircase without railing but has a adjoining wall. As I walked up the stairs, I had to have one hand touching the wall to make me feel stable. Touching the wall (without a handrail) while walking up wouldn't help, but it made me feel better. This is the same as those devotees at the temple asking for blessings.

If you know what you want is 'possible' why ask (beg) for it? By praying to the gods for more, it shows you have a 'lack mentality' and you will get more 'lack'. So just express gratitude in your prayers that you have enough and more will be given to you.

The Universe will give you the love you gave out. So, go head on against your fears.

But don't be like Baskin Robins. He made so much money selling ice-cream. Then one day, he realised that sugar was bad for the body and felt that he shouldn't have all those money. So he took his money to the top of a tower and threw them down onto the streets. That is silly! He probably forgot that only lots of sugar is bad for the body and that his ice-cream had probably bonded families together whilst they enjoy eating it.

You can take any idea and turn it into whichever way you want - to serve or harm. Same as a business. You can spiritualise your business. I would only not do certain business that are harmful like drugs (narcotics). [However, I feel that such drugs used correctly serve to relieve pain. eg. morphine.]

There are some businesses that focus a lot on form, but it is up to you to make it spiritual. Spiritualise your business. People will go to where love is. I am starting a spa and beauty salon to teach about skincare. In the process, I will teach about who they are, and make them feel better about themselves. The body too has its purpose.

Religions teach that the body is not important. If it is not, then why does a smile give so much? Can't do that without a body!

[My Q: How about high-end boutique? Isn't it more difficult to spiritualise?]

The higher end the better, as these people have money to spend, and to give to worthy causes that you may organise for. There are many who are also very lonely. There are much you can do to help them too.

The body exists in time and space. As such, we can go back and correct the errors we make in our life. Hence the saying, "my body is my temple". The body has great power to you and to others.

So live long to be useful. If you are so fedup with yourself, you are of no use to others.

Remember, whatever you want to be is just an "IDEA". "Buddha' is an idea, "Allah" is an idea, "God" is an idea...etc. So choose the idea that will help you (gain a higher consciousness). When your idea matches the idea of God or Nature, then "Your Father and I are ONE". There will be no boundaries in your life.

God is omni-present, omniscience (all knowing, as even the grass knows how to grow), and omnipotent (all powerful). Even if we burn the planet down, it will grow again.

[Q: How do we know we are well aligned?]

Your emotions. Are they loving? Or are you busy worrying about money...etc.

However, enjoy your 'Idea' (what you want to be), but don't get attached to it. It is up to us to make it a heaven or a hell. Hell and heaven are also different to different people. For instance, I brought my elder brother for lunch in a nice restaurant thinking that it will be heaven for him, but it was hell to him. I found it out one day when I overheard him telling my sister that I brought him somewhere where the fried rice has all these green colors and red colors...etc (capsicum and green peas). He never had fried rice like these before. "How to eat?" he said. And he also said that it was so cold (strong air-condition). So heaven to me in a high class restaurant is hell to him.

What you choose to do, may not also be seen in the same light by others. For instance, many must have thought Buddha was mad. He was a prince in India, married with a wife and baby and choose to leave the parents to sit under a tree! Siao bo siao? (Hokkien: "Mad or not mad?").

So, no need to care about what others think of you. All you have to do is to ask yourself, "Am I doing this out of love or fear?" "Is this about abundance or lack?" "Am I 'serving' or 'working'?"

Fear exists only in our minds and it begets a 'lack' mentality.

So be grateful, trust and be yourself.

The grass doesn't want to be a durain tree. Things in nature exists happily as themselves, whilst many human beings want to be someone else except themselves.

Some people can show you their abundance and they are in peace. Some can show you nothing and be in peace. Both of them are in peace because they don't have attachments.

Everyone has the consciousness to be an amazing creator. Human beings are said to have used only 1-5% of their mind. Many are conditioned to thinking doing 'A' or 'B', not 'A' and 'B'. We limit ourselves. Nature, however, has no limits or boundaries. And all of what Nature does requires the same difficulty. The ability or difficulty for Nature to create a rambutan, a durain, or a blade of grass is the same. For instance, if I am in the beauty business, can't I also be in construction? Or, can I be a businessman and still be a spiritual person?

I wouldn't hire someone who doesn't know how to play, or doesn't know how to smile. I am going to play until I die, and then play without a body. There are wonderful things about having a body, but there are also wonderful things being without a body. Then you can be anywhere at an instant.

What seem so real to you at one time, may no longer be so. Those who pray at the Kuan Yin Temple nearby will one day realise that they are the creator of their own lives, as they evolve spiritually. All we have to do is to frequently ask ourselves, "Is this the most loving thing you can do?"

When that happens, then shouldn't everyday be like Valentine's Day? Or everyday a Father's Day, Mother's Day...etc. There is no day and night in the Universe. Day and night are there because of the Earth's rotation. So, Valentine's Day (as we see today) are created by businessmen. Nothing wrong with that. They provide the customer what the latter would consider as 'value'. We can go ahead and enjoy Valentine's Day, Father's Day and Mother's Day - no problem, as long as we go in aware and are not manipulated. So go have the romantic dinner, fire crackers...etc. It's only a game. Just don't get seduced into believed what the commercialists are telling you. Be in the world, not of the world.

So no need to look for the happiness 'outside', as the happiness is 'inside'.

[My comment: However, as a person evolves, eventually, he will realise there is no 'inside' or 'outside'.]

So it is no point looking for a 'soul-mate' or 'twin-flame', as doing so implies that you are not complete by yourself. Sometimes we hear people introducing their partner as 'my better half'. What kind of thought is that ('my better half')??!! You mean to say, without that person you are not complete or whole? You mean "1+1=half"??

You are already whole and marriage should make you more than you are.

So in marriage, 1 + 1 = more than 2. So at least, 2/2 = 1.

1 + 1 should be = much more than 2.

Spiritual life

= I AM WHOLE

= I AM THAT I AM ( an idea of what I wish to manifest)

Being 'Special' or 'Holy' are ideas. The former excludes and the latter includes (which gives you more).

'Committed relationships' are different from 'Special relationships'. 'Committed Relationships' are by agreement of an ideal that is greater than oneself. It is a union of the mind, not the body. Only minds can be joined, bodies can't. Minds have infinite visions. The soul needs soul food, not chemical food. The (chemical) body needs chemical food. There is a limit to what the body can do. How many houses can you live in? How many cars? How many children?...etc.

I have known someone when she was 18 years old. Very charming lady. Her idea of marriage is to stay at home to cook and serve the husband...etc. Then after many years, the husband strayed and found another woman who is more exciting. When he is home after work, the dinner is ready, then while he is having dinner, she will be preparing the bath (and not with him)...etc, so it must have gotten too predictable and boring for the husband.

See, so bodies and the physical side of marriages have their limits. It is very pleasant to have everything served, but after many decades, it has become stale.

By all means, enjoy all the physical comforts of the world. Holiness does not mean you have to renunciate all and live in a cave. Holiness means that the soul wants to know if there is love.

About education

School teachers teaches 'lack'. They don't teach abundance. Eventually students grow up believing that they should exchange time for money.

We hear sayings inculcated in kids like:

"Zho gu Zho beh" (Hokkien: "Be a horse and be a cow", ie. be a beast of burden);

"Chari makan" (Malay: "Earn to eat")

We should tell our children they go to school to learn to be more valuable, not to make money. The more value you give, the more you will receive.

So if you have a dream and great plan, don't tell it to your parents, or your girlfriend/boyfriend, or teacher...etc.

Few can see the divinity in you and know you can make it.

[My comment: My mother is a typical Chinese mother. She used to discourage everything I told her I wanted to do. She would even add that I would never make it, as nothing was that easy. Then when somebody else's kids achieve something (to me they were even mediocre), she would exaggerate them and praised how smart other people's kids are. Implying that her own children are not. However, even as a kid, I knew I could make it. I have always believed in myself. In addition, I have always the cheekiness to prove my mother wrong! And time and again, I did. So the moral of the story is to believe in yourself, despite what others (esply those closest to you) say.

To readers who are not Chinese (or those not Chinese enough): This is not to say my mother doesn't love me. She loves me dearly. It is this traditional Chinese fallacy of false humility and protection over their kids - that is to discourage the kids just in case they bite off something too big for themselves to chew. Thankfully, as a strong headed kid, I love those discouragements, and took them as targets to prove her wrong!]

Many people put their own fears in you. We sometimes love someone so much that we make them small.

Highly enlightened people won't ask you what you are doing, but who you are and your expressions of who you are.

Mix around with people you want to be.

About Healed Healers and Unhealed Healers

When a society gets richer, like in Singapore, there emerges many healers. Some are healed healers, whilst others are unhealed healers.

A healed healer knows that it is not really their work, but part of the energy. Conversely, a unhealed healer believes that he has special powers that others don't.

[My comment: I am a Reiki healer. Read my story here. pertinent to being a healed healer. ]

Only you can heal you. Doctors are there to assist you to heal. It is the spirituality that helps the person, not the religiousness.

There is a Buddhist teaching that teaches that all things in the Universe are created in your mind, and you and only you, can be the master of your life. So, there is no need for lotus flowers, incense, mantras...etc. What begin in your head, ends in your head.

God is self-realisation.

The five precepts can't get you there. They are only comforting.

When your mind is free from all things (including religion), can only you be free, and you can be all things.

Do what you are comfortable with, and over time, even that will change.

I have people asks me questions like if they can remove the alter. I asked them if they believe in the alter and if they say 'yes', then I would advise them to keep the alter.

So if you can't drop any beliefs now, don't drop. Wait until you are ready. Then one day, all of a sudden, you would reflect strongly on it, then a big puff of breath, and you drop it all. Just like that instantly, you change just as quickly.

For highly spiritual persons, it is all the same to them. All they do is to love you, no matter what you believe in.

[End of Day 1]

[Day 2]

Love recognises itself. You can try that: when you see a pack of stray dogs, get friendly with one. It will come to you. Then as you stroke and caress it, it'll like to stay longer, then the others will likewise come. And they will remember you. They too will respond to love.

[My comment: This reminds me of the checkpoint and customs sniffer dog going after Ajahn Brahm because it could sense his compassion and love. He wasn't carrying any drugs.]

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Those who know God, does not talk about God.

Those who talk about God, does not know God. - Lao Tze.

[My comment: The mention of this saying was timely, as I had just come from the Bucky Group session where we were trying to define what God is. read here]

We all gravitate towards love. Haven't you experience seeing someone in the distance and having the natural inclinations to avoid that person? There is something unloving in that person and you have picked it up instantly.

[Q: Doesn't that mean that the person need more love?]

Yes, it does, but you may not be able to handle him. If you are a Buddha, or a highly enlightened person, then yes, you will be unaffected, otherwise, your instinct will tell you to stay away.

We know it at the first instinct. For instance, every marriage with a problem already had the problem before the marriage. There was a moment of doubt but you kept on due to fear and started to logic it out.

[Q: So when do we know?]

You need to be very sharp and listen to the very first voice. Short and sharp, and not to be distracted and overcome by desires. In a sense, it is like listening to your own vibrations.

[Q: How about some people whom I didn't like first time, but grew to be my best friend?]

This is due to your previous connection with someone else of a similar look, ethnic group, gender...etc. For instance, there was a girl who was raped by her Oriental gynaecologist and was traumatised. So, when she met me, it reminded her of the rape and she was very uncomfortable with me.

[Q: page 40, para 2: What does this mean: "All your difficulties stem from the fact that you do not recognise yourself, your brother or God..."]

Here 'brother' means someone else, and not literally your biological brother. The sentence mean to say that you do not recognise the 'I' in the other person. To the 'I' the other person is just a 'you'. Or it implies the inability to recognise the divinity in another person.

[Q: page 40 para 4, line 1: "True vision is the natural perception of spiritual sight, but it is still a correction rather than a fact."]

Here 'spiritual sight' is the 'third eye'. This is often not taught in religion as many of the religious leaders are afraid that the followers will then not need the temple, mosque or church. The spiritual sight is the unity in vision, from duality to unity.

[Q: page 45, para 5, line 6: "Ingenuity is totally divorced from knowledge, because knowledge does not require ingenuity".]

That means take the truth as the truth, it doesn't need ingenuity. That sets you free. eg. "Change is the only constant in the Universe", is a truth. Accept that and it will set you free.

[Q: page 45, para 6: "Prayer is a way of asking for something. It is the medium of miracles. But the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who have been forgiven have everything. Once forgiveness has been accepted, prayer in the usual sense becomes utterly meaningless..."]

What it means here is that many pray to get something, which reflects a lack in their life, forgetting that whatever they want is already given. Instead they should take prayer as a form of expression of gratitude and ask for forgiveness to have lived life in duality. Once we have accepted the unity, the 'old way' of praying to get becomes meaningless.

To forgive, first you have to forgive yourself. If you can't forgive yourself for some of the things you have done, you cannot forgive others.

It is only when you can forgive all that you become free. Those who are not free will be those who will serve others who are free.

Eventually, you will stop the old way of prayer. You will learn that miracles are everyday occurence. You yourself is a miracle of God. Isn't so that our body is a miracle with some many cells working towards the whole body? In an upside down world, we tend to think of miracles of rare occurences. To the contrary, miracles happen all the time. Any expression of love is a miracle.

If you want to pray, pray not for something, but you can pray like these:

1. As an expression of gratitude.

2. Ask for the healing of the mind.

Example:

Dear God

Heal my mind. My fears are from my inability to understand these. I'm feeling unloved, heal my mind...

You can't heal someone at the level of the body. It has to be in the mind. Some of you may have noticed that I have been hobbling during these two days in Singapore. My leg tendons are hurting. Now what does that mean? Legs are for walking. Could it mean that I don't want to walk? Don't want to come here to Singapore?

On Friday while in Malacca, I really didn't feel like coming to Singapore this weekend, but I have made my commitment for ACIM and I have to keep my end of my promise. You are supposed to read the book and ask questions in class, but I know many of you did not read. I kept my end of the promise but you haven't. This is not fair and I didn't want to come to Singapore, that's why my body refused to move by giving me the tendon pains. But once I realised this, I have to work on my mind, and the pain will go away.

When you sympathise with someone, you make the other person small. Empathy is different from sympathy.

[Comment from audience: Someone came to me to pour out his problems to me. I didn't sympathise with him but just listened. Later, he came back to me and thank me for not sympathising him, and because of that he felt better.]

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[Q: page 86 Time and Eternity

"God in His knowledge is not waiting, but His Kingdom is bereft while you wait. All the Sons of God are waiting for your return, just as you are waiting for theirs. Delay does not matter in eternity, but it is tragic in time. You have elected to be in time rather than in eternity, and therefore believe you are in time. Yet your election is both free and alterable. You do not belong in time. Your place is only in eternity, where God Himself placed you forever."]

[Q: page 293, para 2, line 7: The miracle is one thing you can do that transcends order, being based not on differences but on equality."]

This means that all expressions of love are maximal (and therefore equal). There is no such thing as 'big love' and 'small love'.

[Q: So what does it mean when we hear people saying, "You don't love me enough"?]

This is not our business. We only need to love. There is no big love and small love. By worrying about what the other person is feeling we enter into a caretaker and co-dependent relationship. People who change the world are not caretakers.

[Q: So how if a child in school doesn't want to study? Let it be? It won't be acceptable!]

Who can't accept? You? May be you have to accept, as you don't know what the child's potential is in other things.

[My comment: There is this girl Julian Lynn who can't sit still in class in the UK and was brought to the attention of the parents. She was then brought to a specialist who recommended that she was brought to a dance school and later got into the prestigious Royal Ballet School. Today, she has cheorographed Cats and Phantom of the Opera, two of Andrew Lloyd Webbers musicals, has a fabulously creative career and is a multi-millionaire.]

Parents need to understand they cannot control their children. The children have their own life. Parents can only guide their children.

We are all god manifested in different forms crossing each other paths in the universe. So we all walk our own paths. Sometimes it means to walk the path alone. So, do what you really want and die fulfilled.

[Q: Page 293, para 2, line 6: "The miracle, therefore, has a unique function, and is motivated by a unique Teacher Who brings the laws of another world to this one." What does 'another world' refers to here?]

'Another world' here referst to teachings different from what you have been taught previously. So seek out that teacher. "Another one will come", as told in every religion, another one greater that all before. In Islam, it is called Iman Mahdi; in Buddhism, Lord Matreya. The Christians speaks about the coming of the 'anti-Christ'. Some will come to prepare the ground.

[Q: Who? People like Mother Teresa?]

Don't names, but why Mother Teresa? Why not you? You are god too.

Jesus had 12 disciples. Buddha had 5 disciples. Mohammed had a few slaves. Then the numbers grew. Then be prepared for opposition to your teachers. It will be a long journey.

When I was young, I had a Malay girl friend from Negri Sembilan. A Menangkerbau girl. In their culture, the woman is the boss. Anyway, she is Muslim and that means I will have to convert. I told my mother about having to change religions (potentially), and was very surprised to hear her say, "Don't worry. God is One". She is not educated and a staunch Buddhist devotee. Yet she knew, "God is One".

The power is in your emptiness. If you want more, empty out more. Free of opinions of other people.

[End of lecture]